SERMON UPDATE!!!!

Got behind again with posting sermons.  So, here are a bunch, with a tidbit from each.  There is no 5th Sunday after Pentecost Sermon as I was on Vacay for my sis' wedding.


Sermon Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost


Some times the works of Christ wear upon us, the anxieties of all that must be done overwhelm, and we weep for those who die. But, the lives we change shine greatly. The crosses we bear into weary places lift other crosses. Our giving of ourselves leads to others new lives. The giving of Christ's life leads to new life for all.


Sermon Tenth Sunday after Pentecost


When we declare Jesus as Messiah, as the one who frees us, it puts us to work. We are free, to serve. We are free, and mission begins. In communion we are fed, and we go out to nourish. We are freed from the chaos of sin, so that we can go out into the chaos of those hurting around us showing them the messiah that frees them.


Sermon Ninth Sunday after Pentecost


In this text we are that woman afraid and concerned about the welfare of her child and the world around us, afraid when people insult us and tell us we are not worthy, tell us that we are not the ones Christ is sent to. And in this text Christ gives us a crumb, all that is needed. But, Christ does not stop, for now we are that crowd, and Christ feeds us and even though only a crumb would suffice, Christ now gives us the hunger filling bread of life and the thirst quenching wine of compassion. Where Christ's mission was only to a few, with grace sufficient for all, now Christ's mission is to all nations, still with grace overflowing.


Sermon Eighth Sunday after Pentecost


Jesus may send us into the waves of life, into the storms of chaos that surround us, but when he does so, Jesus sends us out together, in the boat of the church, united in Christ's Death and Resurrection. And when, not if, we think we know better, we get out of the boat, heading out on our own path, the storms overwhelm us, and we sink. Immediately, as we sink, Jesus reaches out to us. Jesus reaches into the storms of life, into the waves which pressure us, the winds that buffet us, and gives us calm and brings us back into the fold, back into the boat.


Sermon Seventh Sunday after Pentecost


Christ's feast is a place where all are equal and all are welcome, where we will not be sent home because there is not enough. It is a place where we do not have to whole in order to feast, a place where we do not need to pay in order to eat. It is a place where Christ takes a few loaves of ordinary bread and through them does wonders. Christ does such great wonders with ordinary people like us, like those around us, like those in the rest of the ELCA, and all Christians throughout the world. Through being fed in simple abundance we have the strength to show that the love of Christ is enough for all the world.


Sermon Sixth Sunday after Pentecost


Our expectations tell us that we have work to do, that we have to plant the correct seeds, that we have bread to make, and we fail at those things. Our expectations are dashed, destroyed, devoured. And to that God tells us, I love you, nothing can take that love away from you. God takes the little that we are capable of doing, things so small that we cannot even see them, places where we think we have failed and creates abundance from them. God takes our expectations and exceeds them beyond our very comprehension.


Sermon Fourth Sunday after Pentecost


In this parable what we learn of God is that God sows. God sows, and sows and sows and sows. God never stops sowing. And with wild abandon, God seems to not be concerned about where the seed lands, just that it is spread. God throws the seed of the word to every corner that we can hide ourselves. Sometimes it does not connect with us at that moment, at times when we may be on rocky soil, or on the path, but at the time when we need it the most, when we sit on good soil, it stays and grows within us, bringing forth life abundantly. Every time we read the word, every time we receive the bread and wine, every time we feel a curious twitch run through us, every moment of every moment. God sows into us grace. God sows into us love.

Whole Bunch of Sermons

dang, I'm behind.

I just posted 4 sermons on Fidgeting so here's a little guide to them and a highlight.

Maundy Thursday

Jesus, gets up from the table during dinner, either about to give his body and blood, or has just given it, and takes a towel. He takes a basin of clean, clear water, and washes the disciples feet. He washes these travelers feet, these feet that are caked with dirt, beaten and broken, cuts, scars and bruises on them. These are no pretty manicured feet, but feet of pain, feet of discomfort. The water that started clear will come out dark, unable to even be seen through. Jesus does not just get into the nice parts of the disciples lives, but into the very muck they tread through.

Jesus in washing the disciples feet cleans their soles, in more ways than one.

Easter Sunday

When I was younger I would watch the PBS kids show Lamb Chop's Play Along, the closing song of it was “This is the song that never ends.” Which I'm sure my parents and many other parents were really glad they taught to small children who really would sing it never-ending, such as myself. I know I had it in my head for a solid 20 minutes while working on this.

But that song that never ends is our story. Our story never ends because Jesus' impact in his death and resurrection never ends.

We just have to see that never ending story. When Mary and Mary were looking for Jesus, they did not find him. When they ran excited to tell about Jesus, he found them. It is in the times when we are living in the story of Christ, filled with our baptismal calling, that Jesus will find us, and show us his presence in this world.

Second Sunday of Easter

Jesus has Thomas touches his wounds. That's amazing. It wraps the incarnation (Christmas), the crucifixion (Good Friday) and the resurrection (Easter) all into one. Jesus is still human, he is the fully God, fully Human who came to us at Christmas, and he is still the crucified one, he still has the wounds he received on the Cross, that was not negated, but overcome, and through those two things we know he is risen completely. In one move Jesus has declared to us all we need to know. He has taken the incarnation, the crucifixion, and the resurrection and wrapped them in, with and around each other. For their importance is always interlocked and intertwined.

Third Sunday of Easter

In our text the two on the road walk slowly, plodding, Mary at the tomb is fearful and grieving, the disciples are hiding in a room grieving and fear for their lives. All of these appearances are to people who are full of grief, they have followed this man they thought to be messiah everywhere. They cannot recognize Jesus, because they cannot see him. They are so full of grief that they cannot recognize Jesus who they love.

Merritt continues with her answer.

… is this passage telling us something about us? Is it showing us the nature of grief and how disorienting it can be? Kathryn Johnston, a pastor at Mechanicsburg Presbyterian Church, explained her answer in a tweet to me this way, “When grief and the dark of the valley engulf you, you cannot even see Jesus in front of your face. He’s there. Just. keep. walking.”

When we need Jesus to reveal himself to us, he will show up, he will take our grief and enlighten our hearts.

Woman at the Well

Who is it that we ignore and walk past?

Who is it that we know?

Who is it that we love?

Advent Reflection by Archbishop of Canterbury

This is just fun!

It Gets Better: Bishop Mark Hanson, ELCA

A wonderful message expressing God's love for all of God's Children.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen

Barefoot in Jerusalem: Ana Sakni Hon...

My friend Elly's first post on her new blog about her new life in Jerusalem working for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land.

Barefoot in Jerusalem: Ana Sakni Hon...: "These past weeks I have been waiting for the time to write a proper ‘first blog post’. I kept thinking the time would present itself. I ke..."

Poems

I read these two poems at the Persistent Voice Poetry reading at Wartburg.

They speak a little to where I am at the moment.

Mother to Son

By Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So, boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps.
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now—
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

The Peace of Wild Things

BY WENDELL BERRY

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Recent Sermons at Fidgeting with the Word

I just posted about a month and a half of sermons over at Fidgeting with the Word so I decided I would give a little link message here to ease reading.

Palm Sunday

Maundy Thursday

Easter Sunday

Fourth Sunday After Easter - Psalm 23

Fifth Sunday After Easter - Phillip and the Eunuch



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Congressmen Visit Gaza

A Link from Congressman Brian Baird's congress website. Baird (D-Washington) and Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) just got back from visiting Gaza. Here is Baird's report.


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